“Scary Mary Jo”? Excuse me while I gag…

I saw the headline in last Thursday’s The Other Paper and laughed out loud. “Scary Mary Jo”, by Dan Williamson, details how the top contenders are supposedly scared of running against Kilroy because she’s a “tough campaigner”. What makes her tough, according to Williamson? The fact that she’s a mean person and a dirty campaigner says he. Those characteristics don’t make her someone to be afraid of; it just makes her a mean person and a dirty campaigner.

I don’t ignore the fact that even if the GOP got the candidates that they wanted, the 15th District would still be tough race since the county is trending Democrat and Kilroy will have a lot of money. But when looking at her qualities, there are a couple of things that Dan forgot:

– Her “prickly” personality is still a negative.

I have involved in a few elections, and I have seen her in action. I believed her to be arrogant and condescending to her opponents and voters and if you want proof just look at her debate last year with Rep. Pryce. That could also be a reason why she lost; she may have polled well in Franklin County, but she could not connect with those in Union or Madison Counties.

-Ran in ’06 and lost. What’s different now?

She’s running the same campaign that she ran last year, and the climate’s not as bad for the GOP this year like it was last year. Not great, but not horrific. But this candidate that the GOP gets to run will not have any taint on them and she will have to run on her true left-wing views.